Fourteen-Year-Old Collapses at Playground From Drug Overdose

A 14-year-old Scottish schoolboy collapsed on the playground from a suspected drug overdose. According to DailyRecord.co.uk, the boy is believed to have taken ecstasy and Valium before his collapse. Emergency staff first gave the boy Narcan, an anti-opiate drug.

Police investigated the school, and a substance found has been sent for tests. One source said, "Everyone is in shock. The boy was given ecstasy and Valium by another pupil and took them before collapsing at lunchtime. The police were searching for drugs and asking pupils if they knew what he'd taken. There are a lot of drugs around here, so it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. The kids say he took 'sweeties,' meaning drugs."

Comment Via Facebook

Shaw, writes:
My 18 year old son, Ethan, graduated from high school 6 months ago. Since that time, he smokes Marijuana every day, does not work, and is not enrolled in school. Additionally, he sleeps all day. More recently, he has started to drink a 5th of Vodka daily. Is this normal teenage behavior?

Cindy, writes:
Shaw, this is not normal teenage behavior. In fact, Ethan is underage and should not be drinking alcohol, nor using illicit substances. Ethan has a substance abuse problem. An intervention should be staged immediately. Ethan should then undergo detox and then check into an in-patient rehab.

Kim, writes:
Cindy, My son needs help. When he was 14, he was involved in a bad accident which required him to have surgery. At the age of 18, he was in another, more serious accident, which resulted in a broken pelvis and more surgery. After the surgery, he was put on pain medications. Well, he became very dependent on the medications, and began abusing them. Within no time, he had moved on to more potent drugs, and then came the alcohol. I see him getting progressively worse, and he is to the point now where he cannot stay away from the drugs or the alcohol despite several attempts to quit. We have talked several times about his problem, and he is willing to get help. I am very concerned for him, and I just want to him to get the help he needs.

Cindy writes:
Thank you for your concerns Kim. I can understand what your son is going through. We see this situation too often, where someone has a serious injury or accident, and a legitimate reason to be put on pain medications. However, at some point, the line between needing the medication and wanting the medication gets blurred. It seems that in your son’s case, that line has been crossed. Opiate addiction is a serious problem, and often happens before the person taking the medicine even realizes they are addicted. You mentioned noticing your son getting progressively worse. We often refer to addiction as being “chronic, progressive, and fatal”. Unfortunately, addiction is not something that will just go away if we ignore it. In fact, the longer we ignore it, the more it progresses. We must be willing to recognize that we have a problem, and willing to accept help. It’s good to hear you mention that your son is willing to accept help, and we are here to help him any way we can. We offer medically assisted detoxification programs specifically designed for Opiate withdrawal, as well as Intensive Outpatient, or Residential Treatment. We can develop an individualized treatment plan for your son to help address any underlying issues that may be contributing to his addiction, as well as establish a solid after-care plan for him. I know you want what is best for your son, and we want to help restore a new hope for him.